Communications

Pursuant to North Carolina Public Records Law (G.S. §§ 132-1 through 132-10), I hereby request the following documents:

All reports, evaluations, test results, proposed testing, and related materials regarding water supplies and usage in Wilmington, North Carolina, created since January 1, 2016.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I would request your response within ten (10) business days.

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 15, 2017. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.

Working Narratives:Thank you for your public records request. This email is to acknowledge the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has received your request for:All reports, evaluations, test results, proposed testing, and related materials regarding water supplies and usage in Wilmington, North Carolina, created since January 1, 2016.

We are in the process of identifying what, if any, public records are responsive to your request, the location of those records, and assessing the resources necessary to fulfill your request.The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services must provide requestors an opportunity to inspect and copy public records free-of-charge in most circumstances. In the unlikely event our staff estimate there could be a cost to you associated with completing your request, we will contact you to discuss your specific situation and any alternative options before assessing any charges. Additional information about our current cost schedule and policy, including any applicable copy fees, are available at https://www2.ncdhhs.gov/control/pub_recs_charge.pdf.Your request identification number is 2017061501. Please refer to this number when inquiring about the status of your request.I am copying my colleague, Paul Hogle, as well as our service account on this email in the event you need immediate assistance and I am unavailable. Otherwise, please consider me your primary contact for this request. My direct contact information is below.The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is committed to responding to your request as promptly as possible. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, concerns, or wish to amend your request.Again, we thank you for your public records request.

Email correspondence to and from this address is subject to theNorth Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.__________________________________________________________

Twitter<https://twitter.com/ncdhhs> YouTube<https://www.youtube.com/user/ncdhhs>Unauthorized disclosure of juvenile, health, legally privileged, or otherwise confidential information, including confidential information relating to an ongoing State procurement effort, is prohibited by law. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete all records of this e-mail.

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 15, 2017. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2017061501.

Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for following-up on the status of your request. I can verify your request is in process, but am unable to give you an estimated time for completion/delivery at this time. I, or someone from my office will send you the responsive, public records as promptly as possible. We take customer service seriously, so in the interim I encourage you to check back on the status of your request at your convenience.

A variety of factors impact the amount of time it takes us to fulfill a particular request. Some common examples include: the scope of the particular request; the difficulty of identifying, locating, and retrieving responsive records; the number, type, and breadth of requests already in process; the resources available to process these requests; the type and amount of legally protected material that is comingled with public records; and the resources available to identify, analyze and safeguard that material. Additionally, since the amount of protected or responsive material can sometimes only be determined through an in-depth review of the records themselves, estimating turn-around time is often a challenge.

NC DHHS is unique among state agencies in that many of the services we provide and programs we oversee touch upon the health, education, safety, and wellbeing of individuals, which often requires us to maintain records of highly personal and extremely sensitive information. We have a duty to ensure we do our best, as custodians of these records, to protect privileged and confidential information and continue to earn the trust our consumers place in us. We are committed to providing responsive, public records as promptly as possible, but our parallel obligation to be good stewards of the sensitive information put in our care means that some requests may take longer to process than we, and our requestors, might prefer or anticipate.

Currently, we are still in the process of identifying and gathering documents that may be responsive to your request.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me or Paul Hogle, who is copied on this email, if you have any further questions or concerns.

Email correspondence to and from this address is subject to theNorth Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.__________________________________________________________

Twitter<https://twitter.com/ncdhhs> YouTube<https://www.youtube.com/user/ncdhhs>Unauthorized disclosure of juvenile, health, legally privileged, or otherwise confidential information, including confidential information relating to an ongoing State procurement effort, is prohibited by law. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete all records of this e-mail.

I am writing in regards to your public records request #2017061501 to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. We have a binder that contains some paper reports; however, we understand that more complete records may be obtained by contacting the local utilities and/or the Public Water Supply Section of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. We are happy to digitize and provide you with the records that we do have. Please let us know how you would like to proceed.

Email correspondence to and from this address is subject to theNorth Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.__________________________________________________________

Twitter<https://twitter.com/ncdhhs> YouTube<https://www.youtube.com/user/ncdhhs>Unauthorized disclosure of juvenile, health, legally privileged, or otherwise confidential information, including confidential information relating to an ongoing State procurement effort, is prohibited by law. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete all records of this e-mail.

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 15, 2017. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2017061501.

Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.

I am contacting you in connection with your public records request #2017061501 to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

In order to serve you better and help staff more effectively and efficiently identify records responsive to your request, please provide the following clarification:

1. Is your request limited to documents as they relate solely to municipal water supplies?

1. Would you like to tailor your request based on subject matter, or are you seeking all documents related to water supplies and usage in Wilmington, North Carolina, created since January 1, 2016?

Our office would appreciate any additional information you can provide that might help us reasonably identify the materials you’ve requested. Our experience suggests that by initially defining the scope of your request, you may potentially decrease processing and turn-around times. Please note we are happy to process any supplemental requests.

Thank you in advance for helping us serve you better.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any additional questions or concerns.

Email correspondence to and from this address is subject to theNorth Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.__________________________________________________________

Twitter<https://twitter.com/ncdhhs> YouTube<https://www.youtube.com/user/ncdhhs>Unauthorized disclosure of juvenile, health, legally privileged, or otherwise confidential information, including confidential information relating to an ongoing State procurement effort, is prohibited by law. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete all records of this e-mail.

I am contacting you in reference to your public records request #2017061501 to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Attached, please find a portion of the public records responsive to your request.

The full reports for these test results are available, but will require additional time to produce. After examining the attached spreadsheet, if you are able to identify specific reports you are seeking, please let me know, and we will be happy to provide them.

I will follow up with any additional responsive public records as promptly as possible, as our office is able to identify them.

Email correspondence to and from this address is subject to theNorth Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.__________________________________________________________

Twitter<https://twitter.com/ncdhhs> YouTube<https://www.youtube.com/user/ncdhhs>Unauthorized disclosure of juvenile, health, legally privileged, or otherwise confidential information, including confidential information relating to an ongoing State procurement effort, is prohibited by law. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete all records of this e-mail.

I am contacting you in reference to your public records request #2017061501 to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Attached, please find a portion of the public records responsive to your request. This set of records has been divided into three parts due to file size (attached is Part 1). The additional parts will follow.

Email correspondence to and from this address is subject to theNorth Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.__________________________________________________________

Twitter<https://twitter.com/ncdhhs> YouTube<https://www.youtube.com/user/ncdhhs>Unauthorized disclosure of juvenile, health, legally privileged, or otherwise confidential information, including confidential information relating to an ongoing State procurement effort, is prohibited by law. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete all records of this e-mail.

Email correspondence to and from this address is subject to theNorth Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.__________________________________________________________

Twitter<https://twitter.com/ncdhhs> YouTube<https://www.youtube.com/user/ncdhhs>Unauthorized disclosure of juvenile, health, legally privileged, or otherwise confidential information, including confidential information relating to an ongoing State procurement effort, is prohibited by law. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete all records of this e-mail.

Email correspondence to and from this address is subject to theNorth Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.__________________________________________________________

Twitter<https://twitter.com/ncdhhs> YouTube<https://www.youtube.com/user/ncdhhs>Unauthorized disclosure of juvenile, health, legally privileged, or otherwise confidential information, including confidential information relating to an ongoing State procurement effort, is prohibited by law. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete all records of this e-mail.

I am writing in regards to your public record request # 2017061501 to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

Please see the attached additional records staff identified as responsive to your request for reports, evaluations, test results, proposed testing, and related materials as they regard municipal water supplies and usage in Wilmington, NC, created since January 1, 2016, to the date of your request. These records will be sent in 5 parts due to file size. Attached is Part 1 of 5.

If you believe or have information indicating the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NC DHHS) possesses additional records responsive to your request, please do not hesitate to let me or anyone from my office know. To help us resolve your concerns and improve the way we serve you, please provide details sufficient to research your claim, and I will submit to staff for further investigation. Otherwise, we will now consider your request closed.

At the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, we are committed to exploring ways to serve you better. Please take a moment to let me know about your public records experience and any opportunities you see to improve our services.

Thank you for your public records request to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

Email correspondence to and from this address is subject to theNorth Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.__________________________________________________________

Twitter<https://twitter.com/ncdhhs> YouTube<https://www.youtube.com/user/ncdhhs>Unauthorized disclosure of juvenile, health, legally privileged, or otherwise confidential information, including confidential information relating to an ongoing State procurement effort, is prohibited by law. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete all records of this e-mail.

Email correspondence to and from this address is subject to theNorth Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.__________________________________________________________

Twitter<https://twitter.com/ncdhhs> YouTube<https://www.youtube.com/user/ncdhhs>Unauthorized disclosure of juvenile, health, legally privileged, or otherwise confidential information, including confidential information relating to an ongoing State procurement effort, is prohibited by law. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete all records of this e-mail.

Email correspondence to and from this address is subject to theNorth Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.__________________________________________________________

Twitter<https://twitter.com/ncdhhs> YouTube<https://www.youtube.com/user/ncdhhs>Unauthorized disclosure of juvenile, health, legally privileged, or otherwise confidential information, including confidential information relating to an ongoing State procurement effort, is prohibited by law. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete all records of this e-mail.

Email correspondence to and from this address is subject to theNorth Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.__________________________________________________________

Twitter<https://twitter.com/ncdhhs> YouTube<https://www.youtube.com/user/ncdhhs>Unauthorized disclosure of juvenile, health, legally privileged, or otherwise confidential information, including confidential information relating to an ongoing State procurement effort, is prohibited by law. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete all records of this e-mail.

Email correspondence to and from this address is subject to theNorth Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.__________________________________________________________

Twitter<https://twitter.com/ncdhhs> YouTube<https://www.youtube.com/user/ncdhhs>Unauthorized disclosure of juvenile, health, legally privileged, or otherwise confidential information, including confidential information relating to an ongoing State procurement effort, is prohibited by law. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete all records of this e-mail.